Author: Sérgio Brodsky
Leading brand and foresight strategist Sérgio Brodsky has spent the past six months taking a deep dive into the future of marketing with the Futurecast series. For the launch of the exclusive Futurecast ebook, he writes about why the future is an asset, not a guess. The future is an asset, not a guess. As […]
Sérgio Brodsky introduces Futurecast, the new content series presented exclusively by Marketing Mag and launching on Monday 12th October. In this unique series we go beyond short-termism and apply much-needed foresight to marketing. In the animal kingdom, humans are the only species capable of looking up to the stars and wondering about the future. Our […]
In a changing world, Sérgio Brodsky explains how the future is ours to make and not predict. In his bestselling book The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb tells the story of a turkey who is fed by a farmer every morning for 1000 days. Eventually the turkey comes to expect that every visit from the […]
Data is the fuel in the tank, says Sérgio Brodsky, but is it strategists who have their hands on the wheel? Providing advice about collection, processing, interpretation and meaningful deployment of data has become a usual discussion between clients and agencies. However, more than a real necessity aiming at addressing a specific challenge or embracing […]
Let’s leave branding to the brands – Sérgio Brodsky grapples with ‘personal branding’, YouTube celebrities, transacting personas and the suppression of self. This article originally appeared in The Nurture Issue. As Shakespearean scholar Harold Bloom argued, “Before Shakespeare there was characterisation; after Shakespeare, there were characters, men and women capable of change, with highly individual personalities.” […]
Sérgio Brodsky looks ahead to an OOH environment where the presence of physical retail and seamlessness of ecommerce meld into a single cohesive customer experience. Just like the Atkins, South Beach or ketogenic diets, emphasising a medium over another is a recipe for a fad. For healthy eating we need to balance our carbs with […]
Are brands that try to humanise tech missing the point of its appeal? Here’s Sérgio Brodsky on AI and branding. This article originally appeared in The Madtech Brief, Marketing‘s second print edition for 2019. When thinking about the future, there’s no way to ignore its most invisible yet ubiquitous technology. Like the devil, Artificial Intelligence (AI) […]
Has the Australian adscape become crippled by conservatism? Too afraid to colour outside the lines? Taking inspiration from Burger King CMO Fernado Machado, Sérgio Brodsky says Australian marketers need a kick in the rear. Fernando Machado, Burger King’s global CMO, is a beacon of bravery in a landscape dominated by conformists, efficiency-junkies and procurement-tamed marketers. Machado […]
The world is full of contradictions and marketing’s no exception. Sérgio Brodsky lends his two cents on the brand debate. This article originally appeared in The Dream Issue, our October/November 2018 print edition of Marketing magazine. Brands are stories. Narratives that infuse meaning to otherwise inanimate commodities. Interestingly, such stories are just as real as the tangible products, […]
Life is not simple. Recognise this and short-live the dangerous comfort of ‘ignorance is bliss.’ Confusion. This is the enemy. We do not wish to be confused, befuddled, and frustrated. The argument against complexity is due to the common misunderstanding that complexity leads to confusion. No, it doesn’t have to. This is what good strategy […]
Armed with a clear understanding of the triggers that drive behaviour, good marketers will be able to weave voice tech into their brands in new and innovative ways. By Sérgio Brodsky. This article is part of Marketing’s special focus on audio and voice in marketing. At some point in the mid-1500s, upon finishing his Moses sculpture, Michelangelo […]
Advertisers have become too used to seeing outdoor media as an effective way for mass advertising, says Sérgio Brodsky, but what if we could see it as native content for cities? In behavioural economics ‘functional fixedness’ is a cognitive bias that limits a person from considering something beyond the way it’s been traditionally used, causing a […]
Building a trustworthy brand goes beyond providing consistency, responsiveness and transparency. By becoming more familiar with the brain, marketers can better understand relationships of trust, says Sérgio Brodsky. This article originally appeared in The Trust Issue, our June/July print edition of Marketing magazine. Consistency, responsiveness and transparency are often cited as the key ingredients to building trust, as […]
Bad experiences stick in our memories for longer, according to behavioural experts. Sérgio Brodsky wants to know why more brands aren’t leveraging vulnerability to connect with audiences. This article originally appeared in The Money Issue, our April/May 2018 issue of Marketing magazine. Authenticity has been one of the most over-utilised terms in marketing these days. Both brand managers and their […]
